Distinctly Catholic

After a barrage of articles attacking Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, which has not yet been issued, here is a thoughtful analysis at The Jesuit Post of some of the themes we can anticipate when the letter is finally released. I think items #4 and #5 are especially important: Look for the pope to link concern for the environment with concern for the poor and, as well, to treat the issues of human and natural ecology as a whole.

It is rare these days when a bit of political news makes my heart leap, but the news that Sen. Barbara Boxer is retiring made my heart leap. Unfortunately, as welcome as her departure from the Senate is, it also presents the Democrats with a conundrum. How do they hold on to that seat in the Senate in 2016?

Okay. It is pretty difficult to believe that there is not an organized effort among Catholic conservatives to rebut in advance whatever Pope Francis might say in his forthcoming encyclical on the environment, what we might call a "prebuttal." I mentioned four such articles in the past two days. Here is a fifth, and probably the clumsiest, from Kishore Jayabalan, who directs the Acton Institute's Rome office.

Yesterday, I put up a link to an article by Dennis Prager that amounted to a preemptive strike against Pope Francis’ forthcoming encyclical on the environment. His article was more of a rant than an argument so I only posted it with a brief comment. Within minutes, friends besieged me with two other articles that warrant a more detailed reply, but which amount to the same thing, a preemptive effort to downplay or contradict an encyclical precisely no one yet knows will say.

Voodoo economics is making a comeback. Cong. Tom Price is planning to introduce a rules change that will require "dynamic scoring" of budget proposals. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget examines the plusses and minuses, as it were, here. I smell a lot of shenanigans in this proposal.

You have begun to see some conservatives launch preemptive strikes against Pope Francis' anticipated encyclical on the environment. Here is one of the most outrageous, from Dennis Prager. I do not know what Mr. Prager's religion is, but no Catholic could pen this sentence: